Carla Marinucci: Humm baby, Schwarzenegger keeping his Hummers

So what’s with that Drudge Report item that says Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ditching his beloved fleet of Hummers?

It’s bunk, baby.

“I don’t know where they got this information,” says one source close to the governor. “I heard Al Gore said something about it.”

But, hey Al Gore, check this out: even to a Republican governor who has spent the last weeks touting his green credentials — he’s expected to sign that greenhouse gasses bill next week — the idea of giving up the Hummers, which were so much part of his action hero movie profile, is still apparently out of the question.

For the record: Schwarzenegger still has four Hummers. That’s three registered in California, and one registered in Idaho. And that doesn’t count the much-touted hydrogen Hummer, the one which has been made more environmentally friendly; Schwarzenegger doesn’t own it — General Motors does.

The report from ContactMusic.com, linked today in Drudge, said Schwarzenegger “has ditched his beloved $950,000 fleet of Hummer cars in a bid to save the environment.” It noted that the former “Terminator” “is devoted to the sport utility vehicles for their “precision,” and let’s face it, their macho appeal. But this week, with Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced he was suing six major auto manufacturers — Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and General Motors over greenhouse gas emissions, that was the catalyst in the Hummer-dumping, the item said, adding “ex-movie star Schwarzenegger felt it was prudent to make the change.”

Schwarzengger, as many know, became in 1992 the first private citizen to own a Hummer — a car that weighed in at 6,300 lbs. and was an amazing 7 feet wide, according to reports.

And since that time, many in the auto industry say he deserves almost single-handed credit for introducing the behemoth cars — once strictly military vehicles — to the American consumer market. Environmental critics have noted his endorsement pumped up the car’s popularity, even as they note the Hummers spew, well, a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.

When he first ran for Governor, Schwarzenegger announced his commitment to covert his Hummers to hydrogen to “let Detroit know that this is what they can do.” And though environmentalists say the idea of the “Green Hummer” is still an oxymoron — so far it hasn’t become much of an issue in the governor’s race.

But it might. CommonDreams.org is one of many environmental groups which has already urged the Gov. to give up his Hummers — and go hybrid. “Switching from a 10-mile-a-gallon behemoth to 50-mile-a-gallon hybrid would send a message to Californians—indeed all Americans — that ‘real men’ are gentle to Mother Earth,” the organization’s web site said last Earth Day.

One more thing: on that Lockyer suit, Schwarzenegger was asked Thursday in Silicon Valley about his position — whether he supported it, and whether he believed that it sent a good message to big business in California. His answer: he hadn’t read the suit yet, wasn’t familiar with it, and could have a position later in the day.